The Wall Street Oligarchs (part 1)
By Linda Anselmi on March 31, 2009 at 2:25 AM in Current Affairs, International Monetary Fund
(This compelling treatise on the oligarchs has been bumped up by Susan from the morning of March 29th.)
There’s been a lot of finger wagging at the unruly class recently. It seems we, the Main Street Taxpayers, have it all wrong. Our outrage over the AIG bonuses is class warfare. Our ignorance over the workings of government and finance is self evident. Our anger over our lost jobs, homes and 401k’s is understandable, but misplaced. Our bus tours are inappropriate. Our pitchforks and tea parties are political theater. Our whining over unfairness is unbecoming.
So, basically we’ve been told to sit down, shut up, and be patient. Because this was all our fault. We the underfunded, overspent, and irresponsible taxpayers are to blame for this financial crisis. Or so the story goes according to the Wall Street pork masters, politicians and pundits (a.k.a. the cowardly, corrupt and clueless.).
But strangely enough, some other voices are starting to be heard above the din. And equally strange they are telling a far different story. One that points the fingers of blame not so much at the Main Street Taxpayers (although none of us remain completely blameless), as at the Wall Street Oligarchs.
And in case you don’t remember from your long ago civics classes… An Oligarchy, according to Merriam-Webster, is a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.
In The Nation, Christopher Hayes warns us of what happens when Experts of the World Unite and weigh down one side of the balance sheet.
The outrage over the AIG bonuses occasioned a great deal of commentary about a resurgent populism, often in cluck-clucking tones of disapproval. But the rage, frustration and visceral sense of injustice associated with the bailouts are only part of the story. There’s also the sense that an implicit social contract–by which we assign complicated technical matters to a class of talented experts and in return they figure things out–has been torn to bits.
Remarkably, the small class of (mostly) men running these failed financial institutions seem just as aggrieved. Instead of reacting to their failure with shame or apologies, many exude distrust of and contempt for the great unwashed who don’t understand their brilliance.
-snip-
… the financial elites are ideologically bankrupt, intellectually discredited and morally debased. They have no reputational capital and inspire no confidence. And yet, just as the deftly named “legacy assets” continue to pollute the balance sheets of the major financial institutions, so too do these legacy elites continue to lurk on one side of the balance sheet of democracy. In other words, even if they aren’t worth listening to, they still wield power. They can still bring the whole thing down.
Which begs the question – if the financial elites are bankrupt, discredited and debased, why do they still wield so much power?
Well, it seems the key to their power is in the very nature of an Oligarchy. Oligarchs need enablers. Particularly, government and media enablers. The enablers are built into the foundation of the Oligarchy and then become embedded in the building blocks of all that transpires. So in the end, the enablers’ own survival requires that they endless serve and protect the Oligarchs.
And in the US, the Wall Street Oligarchs took over during The Quiet Coup explains Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, in The Atlantic.
Of course, the U.S. is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy.
In a primitive political system, power is transmitted through violence, or the threat of violence: military coups, private militias, and so on. In a less primitive system more typical of emerging markets, power is transmitted via money: bribes, kickbacks, and offshore bank accounts. Although lobbying and campaign contributions certainly play major roles in the American political system, old-fashioned corruption—envelopes stuffed with $100 bills—is probably a sideshow today, Jack Abramoff notwithstanding.
Instead, the American financial industry gained political power by amassing a kind of cultural capital—a belief system. …Over the past decade, the attitude took hold that what was good for Wall Street was good for the country. The banking-and-securities industry has become one of the top contributors to political campaigns, but at the peak of its influence, it did not have to buy favors the way, for example, the tobacco companies or military contractors might have to. Instead, it benefited from the fact that Washington insiders already believed that large financial institutions and free-flowing capital markets were crucial to America’s position in the world.
One channel of influence was, of course, the flow of individuals between Wall Street and Washington. Robert Rubin, … Henry Paulson, … John Snow, …Dan Quayle … Alan Greenspan.
These personal connections were multiplied many times over at the lower levels of the past three presidential administrations, strengthening the ties between Washington and Wall Street. …
…Throughout my time at the IMF, I was struck by the easy access of leading financiers to the highest U.S. government officials, and the interweaving of the two career tracks. …
A whole generation of policy makers has been mesmerized by Wall Street, always and utterly convinced that whatever the banks said was true. …
Of course, this was mostly an illusion. Regulators, legislators, and academics almost all assumed that the managers of these banks knew what they were doing. In retrospect, they didn’t. …To date, the U.S. government, in an effort to rescue the company, has committed about $180 billion in investments and loans to cover losses that AIG’s sophisticated risk modeling had said were virtually impossible.
Wall Street’s seductive power extended even (or especially) to finance and economics professors, historically confined to the cramped offices of universities and the pursuit of Nobel Prizes. As mathematical finance became more and more essential to practical finance, professors increasingly took positions as consultants or partners at financial institutions. … This migration gave the stamp of academic legitimacy (and the intimidating aura of intellectual rigor) to the burgeoning world of high finance.
And so the experts were all in place and the Wall Street Oligarchs took hold. Embedding themselves in the culture at large. Spinning a mystique of Wall Street that became celebrated and enshrined in books, movies and songs.
…In a society that celebrates the idea of making money, it was easy to infer that the interests of the financial sector were the same as the interests of the country—and that the winners in the financial sector knew better what was good for America than did the career civil servants in Washington. Faith in free financial markets grew into conventional wisdom—trumpeted on the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and on the floor of Congress.
From this confluence of campaign finance, personal connections, and ideology there flowed, in just the past decade, a river of deregulatory policies that is, in hindsight, astonishing:
• insistence on free movement of capital across borders;
• the repeal of Depression-era regulations separating commercial and investment banking;
• a congressional ban on the regulation of credit-default swaps;
• major increases in the amount of leverage allowed to investment banks;
• a light (dare I say invisible?) hand at the Securities and Exchange Commission in its regulatory enforcement;
• an international agreement to allow banks to measure their own riskiness;
• and an intentional failure to update regulations so as to keep up with the tremendous pace of financial innovation.The mood that accompanied these measures in Washington seemed to swing between nonchalance and outright celebration: finance unleashed, it was thought, would continue to propel the economy to greater heights.
A party mood settled in and the congo line was formed, sweeping everyone along in its wake. Occasionally someone stubbed a toe or stumbled briefly, but the rest of the revelers hardly noticed. The congo line grew bigger and bolder. The music player faster. The step became quicker. And then the inevitable happened. The line of thrill-seeking revelers became too large to manage and too unweildly to maintain. It began to swing wildly in every direction. The revelers could not keep up and congo line bust open spewing revelers in every direction.
And in the aftermath, we are facing signs that say Welcome to America, the World’s Scariest Emerging Market explains former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund’s Policy and Review Department, Desmond Lachman in The Washington Post. (The term Emerging Markets is used to describe a nation’s social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Political scientist Ian Bremmer defines an emerging market as “a country where politics matters at least as much as economics to the markets.”)
… despite their supreme arrogance, the country’s leaders never had a coherent economic strategy and that major decisions were always made on the run. I never thought that was how policy was made in the United States — until, that is, I saw how totally at sea Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have appeared so many times during our country’s ongoing economic and financial storm.
The parallels between U.S. policymaking and what we see in emerging markets are clearest in how we’ve mishandled the banking crisis. We delude ourselves that our banks face liquidity problems, rather than deeper solvency problems, and we try to fix it all on the cheap just like any run-of-the-mill emerging market economy would try to do. And after years of lecturing Asian and Latin American leaders about the importance of consistency and transparency in sorting out financial crises, we fail on both counts…
…I thought then, that the United States was not similarly plagued by crony capitalism! However, watching Goldman Sachs’s seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs as well as the way that Republicans and Democrats alike tiptoed around reforming Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — among the largest campaign contributors to Congress — made me wonder if the differences between the United States and the Asian economies were only a matter of degree.
Yet how often do U.S. leaders respond to growing signs of economic dysfunctionality by spouting nationalistic rhetoric … instead of facing our problems we extol the resilience of the U.S. economy, praise the most productive workers in the world, and go on and on about America’s inherent ability to extricate itself from any crisis. And we ignore our proclivity as a nation to spend, year in year out, more than we produce, to put off dealing with long-term problems, and to engage in grandiose long-term programs that as a nation we can ill afford.
A singular characteristic of an emerging market heading for deep trouble is a seemingly suicidal tendency to become overly indebted to foreign creditors.
In part two, Facing Down the Wall Street Oligarchs, I’ll recap where the US now stands in this financial crisis and explore what needs to happen next with both the Main Street Taxpayers and the Wall Street Oligarchs.
Major H/T to LisaB and Mountainaires for bringing to my attention many of the articles used both directly and indirectly in part one & part two. All of these articles are well worth a full reading and I respectfully urge readers to find the time if at all possible.
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That is one of the most astute observations I have seen in some time. And, here we are out of the theoretical and into the reality of it. Well done article.
it’s really quite natural; it is darwinism in action. the strong form alliances to become even stronger at the expense of the weak. the only surprising thing would be if this kind of corruption *didn’t* happen.
the average people must always be vigilant against what is going on at the top of the food chain; the aristocracy does not have our best interests at heart, no matter how much they may pretend they do.
Why wasn’t the CEO of CITI fired by Hopey One? If GM’s sins were mortal, were CITI’s any less so? And then there’s the Great Satan, AIG … Why GM?
They contributed to 0-bozo’s campaign, that’s why.
While I agree with many of the messages in this piece, I think it is grossly unfair to paint an entire industry with one brush.
I think it is equally unfair to generalize about all taxpayers, consumers, women, selected minority groups or any other group with one brush.
I have a tough time understanding how bus tours of private neighborhoods serves any purpose other than to incite civil unrest.
I understand frustration. I don’t understand generalizations.
btw, the bus tours of angry avg. americans were ‘rent-a-mob’ provided by SEIU and ACORN.
Maybe civil unrest is the only tool we have left. The plutocrats seems to have thought about and neutered every other possible response. I question your loyalties in this civil war.
The Bush administration created a situation very like France before the French Revolution. Hillary knew this and her plans would have ended the stealing hand over fist by Wall Street. Obama is continuing the party for the Wall Street sleaze. I’m worried that because Obama is playing Nero we are going to have a repeat of the French Revolution. The poor and middle class are angry and even the ones who were fooled by the media elite selling of Obama are starting to wake up from the koolaide stupor. The upper class are the only ones still fawning over Obama.
“I think it is equally unfair to generalize about all taxpayers, consumers, women, selected minority groups or any other group with one brush.”
A woman or minority is that way because of birth, not choice.
Someone who makes a living managing hedge funds, and then doing so in a duplicitous, greedy way, made a CHOICE to do it.
Most of the people who decide to become financial industry titans are greedy insecure selfish bastards. I’m sorry, anyone who makes the whole purpose of their existence on the planet just making more MONEY for themselves has a greed problem. Period.
This is the United States of America. You are allowed to be a greedy bastard and make billions if you want, that’s YOUR RIGHT.
What you are not allowed to do is to circumvent financial laws, then take all that money and use it to subvert our nation and government for your own purposes.
Let’s focus or anger on the problem, not just the amount of money someone has.
THE PROBLEM *IS* GREED.
Greed is what causes people to throw ethics and common sense aside in order to worship at the foot of the almighty dollar.
GREED IS THE PROBLEM.
From the CEOs who lay off tens of thousands of workers but pull in huge cash bonuses for themselves, to the mortgage brokers who lied on loan applications just to get their commissions – GREED IS THE PROBLEM.
And there is most definitely a correlation between making money your number 1 goal in life and your willingness to bend laws or do things that are less than ethical to make that money.
The people here trying to make excuses for the Wall Street rich are forgetting that the Wall Street rich are that way because they look after their own. They don’t make choices like giving up a million dollar salary to go teach starving children in Africa. They make money and keep it for themselves, maybe giving a small token to some charities as a write-off or to make themselves look good. But ultimately, they are about making money for themselves and their friends, and they could give a damn about you and me.
Most of these guys are sick in the head and part of an extremely corrupt system and culture that rewards their selfishness. Let’s not excuse it or them.
word. there seems to be a total loss of morality in this country.
HOB I always agree with your posts, but I have to say…it’s no one’s business who makes money. It doesn’t stop you from making it, so what’s the point? The American Dream is why we have the lifestyles we have. If you trash that, then we’re Cuba. Period.
Let’s say you’ve been laid off or fired by a company where you’ve worked for 10 years and then you hear that the CEO whose miserable business acumen was largely responsible for your current unemployment just took in 5 million dollars in the past year (not counting stock benefits or his health care plan or his free use of company property as though it were his own) and was then fired for failing to make enough money for the shareholders but got a 20-million dollar “golden parachute” because of a clause in his contract.
Would you not then feel THAT little deal caused YOU to “stop making money”?
Right. We cannot just condone these CEOs getting away with highway robbery. I’m a capitalist, so I am not advocating socialism or communism, but we DO need to make it less “socially acceptable” to be greedy bastards.
This is where outrage and judgment of said greedy CEO is warranted. People DO respond to peer pressure. The whole reason that guy has to have his zillion dollar mansion in the first place is because he’s trying to prove something to his warped ego.
Goes a long way to explain the popularity of Kidnapping in Third Worls countries, doesn’t it?
Linda, very well written article. Here is another (a counter example from an emerging market; I particularly like how the Indian RBI Chair said if the bankers are allowed to sin, sin they will.):
From FP: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4643
Great comment. Thanks for the info.
Thank you pm317.
Great article. There is so much to learn and so much to admire as well as condemn about what is going on. I hope to focus on some of the good things next. So huge thank you. This is such an important discussion we need to have. not just about the US. But to recognize the international implications because it has truly become a small world.
Excellent piece. Two of the major successes of this oligarchy have been:
1) Convincing Republican voters that what Wall Street was doing was actually “free-market competition” when actually it was the furthest thing from it.
2) Convincing Democrats that it was always those evil Republicans in bed with the thieves, not them.
Hopefully people on both sides of the aisle are waking up to The Big Scam.
Yes, your points 1 and 2 are accurate, what in effect is happening though is the enablers are “herding” us. Ever watch “Rawhide”? We as a people are being “driven” by the enablers of the oligarchy. Driven either left or right as need be by the media, driven against one another by class, age, belief by government policies, when in reality we are all in this together… just one big herd.
Yep. Americans need to WAKE UP, because if we ever united against this crap, we’d put a stop to it.
That’s my biggest prayer in this mess. I can’t stand the left right now, for the obvious reasons. And most people here blame everything down to their pimples on the right. It’s ridiculous. If we’re going to save what’s left of this country, and it isn’t much right now, then we need to drop the party line and consider ourselves Americans first. And, really, the left needs to get off of hating people who have money. That’s a big fat waste of time too.
I agree, Fedup, but by the same token, the Right needs to get off hating people on the left who dare to raise a concern that some corporate bigwigs in bed with the politicians are HELPING to rip us off and usher in a govt/financial sector partnership that could enslave us all.
Both sides, both Right and Left, have, over the years, rightly identified various faces of the enemy. Some of those faces are corporate, and some are governmental.
The problem is that neither of us is willing to admit that the enemy exists on both sides of the aisle, in both the private and public sector. So we keep arguing with one another over which “side” is the enemy, while they play us against one another.
WMCB…Look, I have always said…I never cared who was President…the left, the right, whatever. Personally, I think the left is very misguided with the blame game. Do they forget that Pig Pelosi and her demons have run Congress into a 12% approval rating, and a spendathon, and they are the left? Do they forget Fannie and Freddie, which McCain and Bush tried to stop, while the left black caucus said “everything was fine” and they were lining their pockets with our cash? Do they not remember that even HRC voted for the war in Iraq? Come on guys, as long as the left stands on the soapbox, we’re doomed.
I didn’t vote for Bush and I don’t want to hear anymore about it. Why? Because Obama is a whole new menace to us, and to the world at large. If Hillary won, so be it. We’ve had this discussion. We would live through it. We’re NOT going to survive this one, friends, and I really just urge us all to spend our time productively taking action against these people who do NOT want America to stand.
I agree, FedUp. I don’t want to hear Obama whining about Bush, nor anyone else.
And you are correct, that McCain and Bush both tried to pull the lid off the spiders nest that is Fannie and Freddie, and were stopped by the democrats. Bush was RIGHT about that. (see? a Liberal just said Bush was right!) By the same token, many democrats wanted credit default swaps subjected to the same equity provisions, accounting standards, etc that other types of trading are subject to, and were blocked by republicans. That’s why I said that BOTH SIDES have at times accurately seen the dangers, but only those dangers coming from the other side, not their own.
It is going to be up to the People to do that. I pray we can.
Yes I agree. I pray we can. Maybe we should really start another party. A party of patriots who don’t use womens’ reproductive issues, religion, gay marriage, etc. as a wedge between us. Because I am pro-choice, pro gay marriage and I’m not a bible banger. But I also can’t stand to see what the left is doing to us. So what does that make me? All I want is this nightmare to end. Period.
WMCB, I totally agree. Those of us who stepped outside the box and voted against our Party because we saw what was happening, are willing to be Americans first and not subject ourselves to cognitive dissonance. We need to stand together and forget the Party affiliations if we want our country to survive.
No wonder the Tea Party Movement is growing.
Yeah, and can you believe the actor who does the “We The People” videos has been “summoned” to the White House because OFraudo the Fuhrer finds them “disturbing?” WTF?
summoned!!!..like getting taken out to the wood shed..
Thanks for a great post! Interesting perspective and a topic worthy of lots of debate. But for me, the main takeaway is the quote below.
When they pissed away millions of retirement and college accounts they broke the social contract. They do not seem to give a damn how many lives they have ruined but whine about their compensation and safety. People will never forget this.
Why do people turn their brains over to “experts”?
Use your own common sense, people – if what someone is saying to you whether it be a Doctor, Economist or Politician doesn’t make sense to you, say so and make them justify it to you. If it still makes no sense, reject it.
The reason the “elite” gets away with it is that no one wants to look stupid by questioning it. It’s the Emperor’s new clothes.
The biggest asset of getting older is you don’t give a damn any more what anyone thinks of you. So SPEAK UP everyone – QUESTION AUTHORITY. Truth be told, these “experts” do not have any magical knowledge and often know a lot less than you do.
Very well written and the text is thought provoking.
I keep coming back to the moral and ethical responsiblities that have all but disappeared from this country.
Those, both high-born and less influential, who are looking to game the system will do so!
In the old days, they would have been outlaws, then con men.
Now they acquire credentials that open doors for them, and everyone understands the results of that.
I’m disgusted, but I won’t share in their indictment, for I’m honest!
As I have said many times on this blog-Obama is a master at drawing our attention to bullshit..while he and his cronies profit from the sickness he creates. Case in point-that is understandable..Chicago’s South Side.
He was responsible for giving money from Penny Pritzer, the Feds and the state of Illinois to Rezko for rebuilding the slums. He directed millions of dollars to Rezko and not one-not one dime of that money was used to fix anything.
Obama got out of there-destroyed every piece of evidence-according to him eight years of legislative records were lost, destroyed or just went missing? Those were the three excuses he gave on record-which no one questioned- as to where the money records went…He got a mansion, Reverend Wright got a mansion..and now the only one in jail is Rezko?
Wake up…this is his pattern and we are all in for worse..
GM-AIG-the list will keep growing until it is acceptable for all of us to embrace ‘kicking the bitches’ like Obama does each and every time he tells us we need to suck it in and sacrifice according to his rules? Yeah..give us a mansion!
Just like his invisible track record from Chicago. The man is a crook, liar and now responsible for millions of ‘folks’ who are living in tents across America-just what you wanted, eh?
The government creates the chasms between us through policy and the media exploits and sensationalizes them through emotion. The result is a confused and bewildered populace, hating each other by groups as the cause of each others problems, when in reality “we” are about all “we” have left. Obama is just the guy. He is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem. We used to be a republic, but that was a long time ago. Trying to detail when and how we lost that would in itself fill it’s own blog.
Excellent points Docelder.
Part of my frustration that may have gotten lost in trying to highlight so much information was those very points. It is endlessly frustrating to me that various elements of the media and too many political figures are manufacturing and manipulating issues to tar and discredit whole groups. instead of dealing with the real issues.
Divide and conquer. It works every time.
I read in the comments, with interest, how Yaga Reddy, the Reserve Bank of India governor, led India’s financial system through the last 5 years with hardly a scratch.
Some years ago, I heard someone say that businessmen are like mobsters without the guns. Reddy believed in tightly regulating them. May his model of leadership become ours.
A very informative little interview, of about half an hour, and well worth watching:
http://tinyurl.com/5ptqx9
Thank you for the video of G Edward Griffin on “Creature from Jekyll Island: A second
Look at the Federal Reverve System.”
I always thought the Federal Reserve System belongs ot our government.
I just posted a lenghty comment……am I in moderation?
pd, Thanks for that link.
The Creature From Jekyll Island looks like a must read book.
I looked up some reviews for his work and here is a chilling review from 2001
Will someone, pray tell, let us know how these hi-falutin brazillionaires trading in “assets” etc. benefited you, me, or anyone whose original mortgage was passed around like M&M’s and bloated into this unforgiveable mess? Looking for someone to incarcerate? Follow the money. It’s always been that way.
And where was The Nation and WSJ during the 2008 election when everyone with at least one active neuron knew that people on Wall Street were among the biggest contributors to the Obama campaign? Did you really expect Obama to appoint satff who would make Wall Street accountable to the people? Could Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner possibly be on the side of regular folks?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
I’m glad you referenced the “Quiet Coup” article, Linda. It’s a grim but excellent essay on what’s been going on. I think it’s important to remember that this is not party-partial: both Dems and Republicans have contributed to the mess we’re in.
However, I do have problems in fomenting class warfare. I think that’s the easy route–brand everyone who has money or power. It’s also dangerous. There’s no doubt that greed and immorality was given a solid footing on Wall Street and down many DC corridors. But there are also plenty of people who made money the old fashioned way: they earned it honestly. And I do believe that there are people in our political class who are honest and good Americans.
I think our mandate is to be wise enough to weed out the corrupt from the honest brokers, both in the financial and political worlds and resist throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Burning the world down may be tempting, but in the end all you’re left with is ash. We’re in a frigging mess right now, but we have to keep our heads and push back in a very controlled and targeted manner. Sending mobs in upper class neighborhoods merely flames ugly emotions and can easily get out of hand. We’ve had our own US reps call for apologies and mass suicides of guilty financial parties.
Sorry, but I don’t support that kind of talk.
We need to mix our anger with wisdom and restraint. Or we’ll all go down with the thieves and fools.
Well said, Peggy Sue. Screaming “eat the rich!” is not the solution.
They can destroy the rich, and therefore destroy the country, and lose their own jobs. I almost wish they would get the Banana Republic they are pushing for. They’ll be happy when everyone is lying in a gutter starving?
Oh, they can all go farm arugula down on the collective.
We’ll all be picking arugula at one of the Fraud’s “camps” soon.
too salty anyway..yeahhhh!!
Thank you for your thoughtful comments Peggy Sue.
My article is not intended to incite class warfare. Nor is it anti wealth. These are both claims many in the media seem to be making at any and all complaints. I don’t think that is fair. I have not given average citizens a free ride. Nor am tarring all of any group with a condemning brush. Since I don’t see the problem as such. I see this as a small extreme group with a vested interest in the status quo that is holding the rest of us hostage.
Its more a demand for a proportional response. Stop daily beating the little sinners over the head and ignoring the huge sins and claiming they’re too complex. Greed is pretty simple.
And I don’t see it as reflective of one party or another. Both have sinners and heros. But our form of government is for all the people, not a small group that is now seems to be holding all the power.
My point and urgency is that we can no longer continue to wring our hands while we wait and see. We are fast losing our opportunity to get ourselves out of this fix. We need to educate ourselves to the problem so we can be a part of the solution. Because it is not going to magically happen and it is not going to be easy – on any of us.
EXACTLY.
Making apologies for the moneyed elite that “they have a right to earn their money who are we to judge” just takes focus off the core problem.
Well, then you and I are in agreement, Linda [which is what I suspected all along].
But some of the over-the-top rhetoric I’ve been reading and hearing over the last few weeks is worrisome. I realize it stems from anger and frustration, but we need to be judicious. It’s the result we want, the way out for everyone to prosper and have a modicum of security and live our lives freely beneath the protection of our Constitution.
Chaos and blind rage serves no one. In fact, it could easily be our undoing.
Btw, Linda, just as an addendum to your article, I found this “very” interesting diary over at Daily Kos yesterday. I was surprised when I read it though not surprised that it disappeared rather quickly. It gives a condensed list of lies the government has fed us as the crisis worsens. It also has a number of links within the text for additional reading.
Article can be found here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/30/1341/23648
Particularly shocking is the unemployment figure, you know the 8.5% we’ve been given. Goolsbie estimates that the real percentage is somewhere between 15-17%.
A real flim-flam is what we’re being served up. So, yes. I agree that we need targeted action, information and a concerted effort to push back before we all go down the drain with these fools.
Thank you Peggy Sue!
Sincerely – you keep me on my toes. And I do appreciate that. Some times in the midst of writing, I don’t always hear what I am saying or realize how it is interpreted. And as with any one, some times the frustrations of the moment come through clearer and obscure the message I’m actually trying to convey.
That dailykos link is awesome. Am researching as I write. HUGE thanks!!
Obama is not a Socialist; he is controlled by Wall Street and world bankers, who want to destroy the USA and instigate a world currency, with world control. Obama is a Fascist. He can now fire the heads of our private enterprise companies and cancel bonuses. Your company or business could be next. Obama fronts for the world bankers and desires the adulation of the world; the USA can take a back seat. Our economy has been drained by the bankers with their Ponzi-like derivative schemes. All derivatives contracts should be destroyed and the “financial wizards” put in prison.
I agree with you.
>>> I never thought that was how policy was made in the United States — until, that is, I saw how totally at sea Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have appeared so many times during our country’s ongoing economic and financial storm.
Now THERE’S three dim bulbs who couldn’t organize a garage sale (or cut up an ounce of weed)!
If they were women, they’d be too stupid to fake orgasm…even the night before Macy’s White Sale.
Baba–Could we retire “stupid” women comparisons?
My only comment is that during every major crisis we face we need to have easy answers and identifiable demons who intentionally put us in the situation we find outselves in.
Back in the 1960’s it was called the military industrial complex that was running this country and forcing us to stay in Vietnam.
Now we have some sort of financial industry oligarchy that is responsible for all the bad things that have transpired.
Just to restate what the late Michael Harrington used to tell his class, “Do you really believe that corporate Presidents gets up every morning, look in the mirror, and say ‘how am I going to screw this country today?’”
There is no secret society or master plan or conspiracy to up-end our economy and control it.
We live with free market capitalism which means the opportunities are limitless but the downsides could be severe. Greed is inherent in this system but it can be a positive as much as it can be a negative. It is a work-in-progress where systemic problems will arise either through corruption or unintended consequences. And through trial-and-error we can correct what we know.
If you are looking for a stable system where there is over-regulation which will not allow for any “bubbles” or other problems, and where everyone shares in the wealth equally, then you are looking for Socialism and Obama is your guy.
I am curious about this as to what you mean.
There is certainly enough blame to go around, and my comment is harsh and reflects my anger.
Not at honest people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own, for it’s tough for a family to get by in this society.
Credit card fraud, illegals fraud, welfare fraud, politicians fraud, Wall Street fraud, CEO fraud, banker fraud, mortgage fraud…it’s all theft!
In the past, another’s finances would be none of my business, thank goodness.
Now however, it’s personal, for all the above have stolen from me, and I’m angry and uncharitable about it!
[...] so the story of The Wall Street Oligarchs and the Main Street Taxpayers resumes as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International [...]
[...] that’s just the opening lines. I’ve written (see here, here and here) and read about the Goldman Sachs connections to our current financial woes. But Taibbi [...]